SEO checklist part 1: find out if your website is ready for high rankings

Getting high rankings can be complicated if you do not have a clear plan. Our SEO checklist helps you to find out if you have done everything to make sure that your web pages can get high rankings on Google and other search engines.

Step 1: Technical things that should be checked

Before you optimize your pages, there are several technical things that you have to check:

1. Check the uptime of your website

If your web host promises an uptime of 99.9%, your website can be down for more than 8 hours per year. It is important that you choose a reliable web host with an uptime that is higher than 99.9%. The uptime monitor tool in SEOprofiler helps you to monitor the uptime of your website.

2. Make sure that your web pages use HTTPS

HTTPS pages are no longer an option. They are a must-have for any website. HTTPS makes sure that your website visitors can enter their data securely. In addition, Google prefers secure web pages.

Make sure that your website uses HTTPS and that your HTTP pages redirect to the HTTPS version. The website audit tool in SEOprofiler checks the security settings of your website.

Also check if your website has been hacked with Google’s safe browsing tool.

3. Check your web pages for duplicate content

Either use your website domain with www or without www. Do not use both versions. Use a single URL format so that Google can find the preferred version of your website. Use the rel=canonical attribute

Important pages of your website should not be available with a maximum of two clicks from your home page.

Pages that require more clicks often cannot be found by website visitors. The website audit tool shows you how many clicks people need to find particular pages on your website.

6. Avoid JavaScript navigation

Each page of your website should have its own URL. Otherwise, it is will be very difficult to get high rankings for the individual pages of your site.

Although Google can index JavaScript to some extent, JavaScript navigation can make indexation of your web pages very difficult (and impossible for some crawlers). In addition, your users won’t be able to link to a particular page of your website.

Avoid JavaScript navigation and use regular HTML links for the navigational elements on your website.

Check your website now

These are the most important technical things that you should check to make sure that your web pages get high rankings on Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Next week, we’re taking a look at the on-page things that you have to check.

The tools in SEOprofiler help you to check your pages as efficiently as possible. You also get tools to optimize your pages. You can create your free SEOprofiler account here: